Shanmugam, Vivian seeking aggravated damages over post by Lee Hsien Yang

Lawyer argues that Lee’s doubling down on false allegations caused further injury

- Selina Lum Senior

Cabinet ministers K. Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan are seeking aggravated damages against Mr Lee Hsien Yang for defaming them in a public post on his Facebook page about their rental of state bungalows in Ridout Road.

Mr Shanmugam and Dr Balakrishnan appeared in court on May 2 at a hearing to assess the amount of damages they are entitled to get from Mr Lee.

They took the stand briefly to affirm the contents of the affidavits they had filed to the court.

Mr Lee was absent.

After the 20-minute hearing ended, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, who is acting for the two ministers, told reporters that they did not specify the amount of damages sought. They were leaving it to the court, he said.

Mr Singh argued in his opening statement that Mr Lee's conduct had aggravated the injury caused by his defamatory post.

He said Mr Lee had refused to apologise for his post after receiving a legal demand to do so, and instead "proceeded to wage a public campaign to gain sympathy and support from Singaporeans" against the two ministers.

The lawyer noted that despite making numerous Facebook posts drawing attention to the defamatory post, Mr Lee "has never once said" that his statements were true.